Matt Kirchman is the Founder and President of ObjectIDEA and serves as the Creative Director of planning and design for all projects. He holds a Master of Science degree in Experiential Education and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication from Northern Illinois University. For over 20 years, the interpretive design field has afforded him the opportunity to exercise his philosophies and methods in both schools of thinking.

Matt Kirchman

Prior to forming ObjectIDEA, Matt was an exhibition developer and Director of Interpretation at several exhibition planning and design firms in Boston. He brings an in-house perspective to the planning process by calling on his experience as a staff designer for the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and as a naturalist and educator for outdoor schools, parks, and museums across the United States.

Matt was one of two independent consultants invited by the American Alliance of Museums to assist the organization in identifying the benchmarks for interpretive planning that AAM will use to accredit its member institutions. Samples of Matt’s interpretive design work are published in Noah’s Art: The Graphics of Zoos, Aquaria, Aviaries and Wildlife Parks, and journals for the Society of Environmental Graphic Design (SEGDdesign) and the American Association of Museums (The Exhibitionist and Museum News). His contribution to the design of the National Museum of Australia is published in the monograph, Tangled Destinies: The National Museum of Australia. He has lectured at conferences for the American Association of Museums, The National Association for Museum Exhibition, New England Museum Association, and Museums Australia. Matt collects museum visits and keeps a database record of each and every one. His current collection numbers over 300 visits from Bangkok to Boston; New Zealand to New York.

Jack Pittenger

Jack Pittenger is an Exhibit Developer and Historian. He joined ObjectIDEA in 2013 after completing his Master’s degree in Public History at Arizona State University, where his thesis work centered on the interpretation of violence and trauma at Gettysburg National Military Park.

His background in Public History affords him the skills necessary to break down complex historical information into simple and accessible narratives. He believes that visitors to cultural institutions should be able to engage with interpretive concepts ranging from the simple to the complex via effective and efficient presentation and writing. These interpretive skills have been put to good use at a number of diverse projects, including the Whaling Museum of the Nantucket Historical Association, the New England Ski Museum, and as a Guest Curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, among many others.

One of his fondest museum memories is meeting Carlton Fisk at the Baseball Hall of Fame and becoming quite possibly the first person not to ask him about his home run in the 1975 World Series.